Brother/sister (no, not really) duo The White Stripes will be making their Rock Band debut next week via a track pack featuring three of their songs. For the handheld rhythm gamers, No Doubt and Dropkick Murphys are also on the way to Rock Band Unplugged's in-game music store.

Uh-oh! I hope our friends from Left4Friends didn't catch this. PAX sources are now reporting that they do have a confirmed case of the H1N1 virus (commonly but misleadingly known as Swine Flu) from their recently-concluded Washington event.

Penny Arcade has released a schedule of activities for this year's Penny Arcade Expo (PAX). If you're planning to go to the event, we recommend checking it out so you can plan out your own schedule in advance.

Are you concerned with Take-Two's move to develop the sequel to BioShock in 2K Marin instead of Boston and Australia? Are you excited about a possible sequel to Max Payne next year? Is Take-Two locked down for EA's taking? All these were answered by the controversial publisher's top execs as they met up with investors. All the details after the jump.

 

Take-Two Interactive may have enjoyed the success behind 2K Boston and 2K Australia's BioShock in the UK, but it was short-lived. Electronic Arts dropped in on the FPS adventure game with the Xbox 360 version of Medal of Honor: Airborne (also on PlayStation 3 and Windows PC on DVD), and it shot straight to the top.

Chart Track top ten games arranged by per unit sold per platform now sees 2K Games' BioShock for the Xbox 360 at second, with Nintendo's Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training close at third. South Peak Games' Two Worlds enters the charts on its first week in Europe and lands a solid fourth place.

The second follow up to Brain Training drops two spots to fifth, while The Sims 2: Bon Voyage from Electronic Arts also enters the charts at sixth. The Nintendo Wii version of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 from EA tees off two spots up from ninth, as the PC version of Medal of Honor: Airborne honorably enters the top ten at eighth.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 for the Xbox 360 drops a serious four spots to ninth, while Nintendo's Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree closes the top ten and also chalks the Wii title count to two. Xbox 360 games currently rule the top ten. Electronic Arts dominates the charts with four titles out of ten, Nintendo coming in second with three.

1. Medal of Honor: Airborne (Xbox 360, Electronic Arts)
2. BioShock (Xbox 360, Take-Two Interactive)
3. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (DS, Nintendo)
4. Two Worlds (Xbox 360, South Peak Games)
5. More Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima (DS, Nintendo)
6. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 (Wii, Electronic Arts)
7. Medal of Honor: Airborne (PC, Electronic Arts)
8. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 (Xbox 360, Electronic Arts)
9. Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (Wii, Nintendo)

Three kids were caught stealing from a home in Needham. Two of them were 12-year-olds, one being a boy and the other a girl. Among the things they attempted to steal were a Wii console, an iPod docking station, and a cell phone. Unlike the young boys who managed to get away with stealing video games with a sledgehammer, the kids were caught not long after the incident.

The girl was caught by a resident of the house. One of the boys was caught by the Boston Police in an alley while the other one was found two hours later. The oldest, a 15-year-old boy, will be held in a juvenile detention facility while the other two were released into the custody of their parents.

The kids, who will appear at court September 4 at midday, are facing anything from community service to detention in a juvenile facility until they're 18.

If there ever was a good time to be in the game advertising business, this would be it. Boston-based research and consulting firm Yankee Group has predicted that the game advertising industry will grow from US$ 77.1 to US$ 971.3 million, racking up a 1,150% growth.

The group says this will happen between 2006 and 2011 when internet-based and in-game ads are tapped on a massive scale by mainstream companies to get their messages to consumers.

In a press release, Yankee Group digital director Michael Goodman said "advertisers are increasingly finding in-game advertising to be a greater investment value because of the variety of opportunities that exist in and around games."

The research firm also indicated that game makers will welcome the initiative from the advertising community and double the total of titles with ads embedded in them. Game ads were once only used in sports titles but have caught on to other genres in the recent years.

"This is a horror genre. People who like horror will love it." Rockstar spokesperson Rodney Walker may have been right when he said that. Especially with the recent controversy surrounding Manhunt 2 - it's been nothing but horror for them and Take-Two Interactive.

Despite the fact that the developers wanted an M rating for the game - so that it could still be sold to 17 year olds who are horror fans - Manhunt 2 fell from 1) an Adults Only rating in the US to 2) getting banned in Europe to 3) an utter halt in distribution.

We're sure a lot of you guys have your own opinions. And we're pretty damn sure that lots of other people are affected as well. We've heard from financial analysts, other developers, and even pro-family groups of what their take on it is. The Boston Globe has even compiled a couple of pros and cons from other people as well. For example, with 30 years of studying the effects of media violence on children, Joanne Cantor says:

The more realistic and involving the game gets, and the greater the similarity between the action in the game and real life action, the stronger the negative effects would be. No, your son may not turn into a criminal. But exposure will take a toll on his life somewhere, probably in interpersonal relationships. These are subtle effects. They take time to surface. A teen isn't going to notice them.

This statement seems to be nodded in agreement by the director the Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial - Free Childhood, Alvin Poussaint, who can't quite imagine teenagers playing Manhunt 2. His reason is that "The level of participation makes the game worse than any that preceded it. It might not make anyone a killer, but could it make someone prone to domestic violence or child abuse?"

Other people don't blame Manhunt 2 for creating murderers also. Family Research Lab co-driector  David Finkelhor even claims that juvenile crime rate has decreased in the 10-to-12 period that violent video games have been distributing in the market. His sentiment lies in the fact that a video game isn't the sole factor that would induce a kid into criminal activities:

It's when you have other potentiating factors -- family problems, mental health issues, extreme stress, dangerous neighborhoods. Playing these games with or without the Wii enhancement is not going to take the typical teenage boy and make a killer out of him.

A mouthful, yeah? Let these thoughts sink in for a moment. Has the Manhunt 2 issue now blown up to unfounded proportions? Will we ever find closure with this? There's definitely a lot of things going through our heads right now. And if you don't mind, we'd like to hear your reactions to this as well. Do note that commenting won't create murderers (but it can still have side effects of summoning a certain environmentalist hero).

As revealed by a report on GameDaily, the censorship wars just extended its battlefields to include game advertisements. The Parents Television Council previously started an anti-game ad campaign in Denver against those ads of mature nature posted in the public rail transit system. Although it heavily backfired, the PTC has succeeded in similar campaigns over in Boston and Portland.

 

PTC director Gavin McKiernan said that they were targeting mature game ads on video games and not those on TV or cinema (at the moment) because it is difficult for inappropriately aged viewers to enter a theater sporting an R-rated movie. Unfortunately for the gaming side, it's pretty easy to spot a game poster ad with M-ratings and remember the game's name.

Nowadays that shouldn't be a problem, as the Federal Trade Commission noticed the climbing trend of point-of-sale restrictions with inappropriately aged buyers of games. But it seems that the PTC wants more than a couple of huge retail chains complying with the restrictions.

In fact, it appears they want absolute barring of Mature content, even if it comes in the form of just ads. McKiernan also said:

It's marketing [mature games] to kids, that's our main issue. There's a reason why the [game companies] buy these ads; they're effective. Billions of dollars are spent each year so they can get the message out to every member of the buying population.

With the Video Game Decency Act and several other regulations closing in, the game industry might just end backed up into a corner. It's future: can you say, "Alamo?"

We just can't get enough of them survival horror titles, can we? Well, Playlogic Entertainment has just announced Hydravision's survival horror title Obscure II, with plans to release them for the PC, PS2, and Wii.

The sequel will take players to the events two years after the original. The survivors have moved on with their lives, from high school to college. All is well until a strange plant is discovered and things run crazy once again. In Obscure II, players will be able to choose one character to control and another to be controlled by the AI. There are six playable characters and each has a different ability.

Playlogic's Stefan Layer, VP of Marketing and Sales, said, "I am extremely pleased that we added Obscure II to our line up. The first instalment was well received by both press and public. Hydravision has pushed the envelope with Obscure II and I am confident that the game will do even better then its predecessor."

Here's some features for the game:

• Adventure and action in a teen horror movie scenario
• 6 charismatic characters with unique skills Unique co-op mode: second player can join in at any time
• Highly detailed and rich 3D environment
  
• Find clues and solve various riddles and mysteries
  
• Vast variety of weapons and horrifying monsters
  
• Stunning soundtrack performed by the Boston Symphonic Orchestra and the Paris Opera Children’s Choir

Obscure II is slated for release in Q3 for the PC and PS2 versions while the Wii version comes in Q4. Check out the screenshots and we'll keep our eyes peeled for more info.